Method and Associated Devices for Hand Crafting High-Heeled Doll Shoes

ABSTRACT

A method and associated devices for producing accurately-proportioned shoe soles for high-heeled fashion dolls, enabling hobbyists to add uppers and thereby craft complete shoes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application relates to provisional application U.S. 63/160,130, and to U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,932 (“Clay dough toy extruder,” D'Andrade, Feb. 19, 1991).

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A “SEQUENCE LISTING”, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING APPENDIX SUBMITTTED ON A COMPACT DISC AND AN INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF THE MATERIAL ON THE COMPACT DISC

Not applicable.

PRIOR ART

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Doll enthusiasts lose doll shoes.

Fashion dolls are a type of mass-produced doll with removeable clothing and shoes. “Action figures” with removeable clothing are a subcategory of fashion dolls. Doll clothes and shoes are interchangeable within manufacturers' product lines. A large percentage of feminine fashion dolls worldwide have diminutive feet, 20 mm (0.8 in) from heel to toe. The overall size of shoes fitting those feet can be as small as 8×10×20 mm (0.3×0.4×0.8 in). Many of the fashion dolls with tiny feet are constructed on tiptoe, necessitating specific heel pitches and footprints depending on the doll.

Once the shoes are removed, they're easy to mislay or destroy. A doll with only one shoe, or none, loses play value; it's difficult for their owners to enjoy imagining them on a runway, at a ball, or even venturing outdoors. Owners require new doll shoes.

Shoes comprise two parts: soles and uppers. The sole is the base of the shoe, the part that underlies the sole of the foot and makes contact with the ground. The upper contains the foot it-self, and affixes to the sole through diverse methods comprising sewing, glueing or construction of one piece.

It is possible to create new shoes by hand.

Whether for flat shoes or high-heeled ones, preparing uppers isn't difficult. An upper can be as simple as a strip of adhesive tape, or ribbon glued to the sole. Depending on the skill and fancy of the enthusiast, they can be made of diverse materials comprising textiles, plastics and modeling compounds.

For dolls with flat feet, creating soles is simple: trace the doll's foot on a textile; cut the tracing to create soles, then affix uppers.

For dolls with high heels, on the other hand, soles require precision to reproduce the necessary dimensions and heel pitch.

The challenge is in properly shaping a sole to conform to the high-heeled foot. A method and device that enables doll enthusiasts to reproduce the high-heeled shoe soles accurately frees them to craft pleasing uppers, attach them to the soles, enjoy their doll's complete outfit and extend the play value of the doll.

There being no such method at present, doll owners must either hand-sculpt their high-heeled soles individually, or buy mass-manufactured shoes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A fashion doll shoemaker is a toy that enables home production of shoe soles for high-heeled fashion dolls using devices such as die cutters, extrusion molds and cavity molds. It forms soles out of modeling compounds comprising wheat dough, clays, resins, and polymers. Given soles of the proper dimensions, doll enthusiasts can craft uppers and attach them to the soles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a high-heeled fashion doll shoe. (11) represents the sole. (13) represents the upper. (15) represents the vertical profile. (17) represents the heel and its pitch. (19) represents the footprint, which varies depending on both the length of the foot and the heel pitch.

FIG. 2 shows a cavity mold. Its cavity (25) forms and defines a malleable compound that hardens over time into individual soles.

FIG. 3 shows a linear rail designed to fit into a popular extrusion molder, which bears at least one die (29), cut in the vertical profile of fashion doll shoe soles.

FIG. 4 shows a disc rail designed to fit into a standard cookie press or caulk gun. Its die (29) is cut in the vertical profile of fashion doll shoe soles.

FIG. 5 shows a die (33) to cut modeling compound into the vertical profiles of high-heeled fashion doll shoe soles (11)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The shoemaker toy is a method and associated devices enabling amateur production of high-heeled shoes for fashion dolls. Specifically, it simplifies the process of precisely crafting shoe soles, freeing the doll enthusiast to create and attach the uppers.

To craft new fashion doll shoes, the enthusiast requires soles and uppers. To prepare soles, he or she begins with a modeling compound that hardens, comprising clay, dough, polymer or resin, then shapes it into soles (11) and allows them to cure through air drying, heat treatment or catalysis.

Given that many doll owners are children with developing motor skills, the preferred embodiment employs a cavity mold device as shown in FIG. 2 . Even very young children can press a modeling compound into a cavity shaped like a shoe sole and enjoy a satisfactory result.

In another embodiment, the enthusiast can extrusion mold the modeling compound into the cross-section of soles, then slit them into individual soles. Using a lever-operated extrusion toy, the user inserts the rail shown in FIG. 3 into the clamps of the extruder. The user then inserts modeling compound into a chamber behind the rail. The user then exerts force on the lever arm to press the compound through the die in the rail. Then the user slits the extrudate into at least one sole. This embodiment permits the user to make several soles at a time.

In another embodiment, the user inserts a disc rail FIG. 4 into a cylindrical household extruder comprising a cookie press or a caulk gun. The user inserts modeling compound into a cylinder behind the rail. The user mechanically extrudes the profile of shoe soles. Then the user slits the extrudate into individual soles. This device and method demands more power than the two embodiments above, but enables the user to mass-produce dozens or hundreds of soles at a time.

In another embodiment, the literate user designs or acquires software instructions to 3D print fashion doll shoe soles (11) using plastic filament. This method can produce attractive soles but lacks the satisfaction and educational value to a child of enabling her or him to create shoes from the ground up.

In another embodiment, the user rolls or pats a malleable compound comprising dough or clay into a sheet, and then uses a die to cut individual soles. 

1. The invention claimed is a method for enabling hand-crafting footwear for mass-produced dolls whose shoes are removeable and interchangeable, and devices for producing shoe soles that conform to the dimension and pitch of the dolls' feet, to meet the challenge of fitting the uniform proportions of the soles in miniature, to conform to the doll's foot, whereupon the user completes the shoe by affixing an upper prepared according to the user's skill and fancy.
 2. The product of claim 1 is a cavity mold, with at least one cavity designed to form the sole of a fashion doll shoe, into which cavity the user may insert an air-drying modeling compound comprising dough or clay, and upon unmolding from which the result is a 3-dimensional high-heeled fashion doll shoe sole to dry according to the compound used, and add uppers to form a complete shoe.
 3. The product of claim 2 is a heat-and-chemical-resistant cavity mold of a robust compound comprising metal, silicone, Buna-N or Santoprene, into whose cavity the user inserts either an air-drying modeling compound or a compound which cures and hardens upon heating or catalysis, comprising polymer clay or resin, which the cavity mold supports and holds in the shape of a high-heeled fashion doll shoe sole during the curing; after which curing, releases the molded sole, permitting the user to decorate and add uppers to create shoes.
 4. The product of claim 3 is a heat-and-chemical-resistant cavity mold, constructed of a flexible rubber or rubber-like substance comprising silicone or latex rubber, which mold may shape a hardenable polymer, comprising epoxy, polyurethane or hot-molded polymer, contain it and shape it during curing or hardening into the form of a shoe sole, after which the user unmolds it and adds uppers to create doll shoes.
 5. The product of claim 4 is a heat-and-chemical resistant cavity mold, constructed of a translucent and flexible rubber or rubber-like substance comprising silicone or latex rubber, which mold may shape a polymer hardenable with light, contain it and shape it during curing or hardening into the form of a shoe sole, after which the user unmolds it and adds uppers to create doll shoes.
 6. The product of claim 1 is an embodiment using an extrusion mold to extrude the vertical profile of fashion doll shoe soles; the user slices the extrudate into at least one sole and adds an upper to complete a shoe.
 7. The product of claim 6 is a method of producing at least one shoe sole using a lever-operated toy extruder as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,932, (D'Andrade, Feb. 19, 1991), into whose clamps the user inserts a rail containing at least one die cut to form the vertical profile of at least one fashion doll shoe sole, and into whose chamber inserts modeling compound, following which the user presses on the lever to force the compound through the die, resulting in extrudate in the vertical profile of a doll's shoe sole, whereupon the user cuts the extrudate into short lengths as soles to fit the foot of a fashion doll, then cures the soles according to the instructions for the particular compound, by air-drying or baking; and finally affixing uppers according to the skills and desires of the individual user to form complete shoes.
 8. The product of claim 6 is an embodiment using a cylindrical extrusion mold, comprising a standard cookie press or caulk gun, into which the user inserts a disc rail containing a die cut like the vertical profile of a high-heeled fashion doll shoe sole, loads a modeling compound comprising dough or clay into the cylindrical chamber of the extrusion mold and activates the mold to extrude the vertical profile of a shoe sole, then slices the extrudate into individual soles, then completes the shoes with uppers as desired.
 9. The product of claim 1 is an embodiment using extrusion instructions for at least one 3D printer, for which the user designs or acquires a software file describing extrusion directions to a computerized extrusion “hot end” which melts plastic filament and extrudes it onto a flat bed to cool and harden into the shape of a three-dimensional fashion doll shoe sole scaled to fit the specific fashion doll, to which the doll enthusiast affixes an upper to complete an entire shoe.
 10. The product of claim 1 of is a method of forming shoe soles from a sheet of a malleable compound approximately the thickness of the sole of a doll's foot, employing a die cutter, whose die line forms the vertical profile of a shoe sole, enabling the user to die cut at least one sole, then to separates the sole from the matrix, similarly to operating a cookie cutter, after which the user cures the soles according to the compound's instructions and completes with an upper to craft an entire shoe sole. 